Naru Quest
by Xamusel - Gamma 11
Summary: (Co-written with DragonKnightRyu) One change in Uzumaki Naru's schooling is all that it takes to snowball from canonical life to something greater... a written test to determine her specialization. Heavily AU, Fem!Naruto, Fem!Sasuke and Pathfinder-style rules to this story (and so on) Rated M for later chapters further down the road.


**(Author's Note from Xamusel: I had thought to myself that this needed to be made to some degree, a quest-like story/Role Play where a character from the Naruto universe was the plaything of the community, and not necessarily in the good way. In fact, it wouldn't really be limited to the Naruto universe, it would include five other universes over the course of the quest. No, I won't say what those five other universes are now, but that's not important right now.**

**If you want to know what rules I'll be using for this story, I'll be using the Pathfinder ruleset, which is with less stupidity than D&D 4E and less complexity than Anima: Beyond Fantasy (both of which I own a copy of). In fact, I'll only be using the rules of Pathfinder, not the world of Golarion (or any third party world Paizo accepts). Also, I had it in mind that the Graduation age from the Ninja Academy in this particular setting would be 16, on the off-chance that there are things that needed to be accomplished by someone older than 12 (what with the class thing and all).**

**Also, aiding me in writing this is DragonKnightRyu, if anyone is wondering. He'll be helping me with writing this particular one from the get-go, mostly because it has to do with specific stuff going on, like what the main character is.**

**On another note, this prologue chapter will be First Person Perspective, and then the next portions of story will be Third Person unless otherwise stated before the chapter.**

**Anyway, off to the story, people.)**

**Prologue: What goes around...**

It was ten years since the Kyuubi no Youko was defeated by the Fourth Hokage, and it was the same amount of time since I was unfortunately, in my opinion, born. Close to nothing went right for me, given that most of my life was filled with neglect and looks of hatred (among other things). No, nothing like physical abuse ever happened, just the type of abuse that came with the emotional territory.

Still, if anything, I was given fair treatment by the should-be-retired Third Hokage and allowed to have a healthy lifestyle befit of a regular citizen. I didn't want to have any of the crap I dealt with normally, but at least it was better than nothing ever going right for me.

Now, the alarm clock started ringing, and I felt I was rudely awakened from a very nice dream regarding me winning a world-wide cooking competition... where did that come from? I blame the lack of a fourth wall in my dreams.

Upon hitting the snooze button on my alarm clock, I get out of bed, moving to get dressed and ready for the day. Today was my first day of going to the Ninja Academy, and I wanted to be there at a decent time, at the very least.

After getting ready for the day, I stepped out the door and made for the Academy, making sure to lock up the property this time. With the latest string of break-ins happening, I didn't want to be the target of thieves, Ninja or otherwise.

* * *

Finally, after a good half an hour, I got to the academy and get registered. Of course, I had to be registered with an ANBU overlooking me for the headmaster's peace of mind, but that's besides the point. I then got assigned a classroom to learn from for all my time in the academy, one that essentially was almost full of girls, with only one guy in the classroom. From the looks of it, most of the girls were eying the single guy in the classroom with awe, or maybe it was a junior form of lust.

Great, fangirls, a ninja's worst enemy.

Still, I want to be a successful ninja, not a part of the crowd. Therefore, I'll be paying attention to my studies, even if it seems like my instructors want nothing more than to force me to fail. That way, I can really exceed expectations of the female population, and from there prove that I can be a proper kunoichi on par with the legendary Tsunade of the Sannin.

Now... it's time to start focusing on what options of the ninja lifestyle I want for myself. Before the instructors decided to do anything in regards to teaching us anything, they gave us each some papers that they said would help us determine what our overall objectives would be in the Ninja program, mostly because of the need for a written test to see where we'd be best placed. It was something that I decided was only there because of the civilian council, nothing more, nothing less.

Eventually, I finished my test, leaving me with some free time to listen in on the various rumors floating around with the girls. For the majority of what they were talking about, it was utter crap, but then there was some truth to the whole thing going on in there. For instance, the rumor about the thieves said that it was a group of ninja that dared to steal from their village, but nobody had proof to back it up. However, there was one rumor that caught my interest, about where the next robbery would take place. Apparently, the next robbery was stated to take place next to where I live, but only because someone was interested in a notebook full of seals for something.

After turning in my test results, I move back to my seat, which was right next to the boy in the room because it was the only seat left available. As it turns out, this boy, a Hyuuga clansman named Hito, was a sweet boy who didn't want anything like the fanclub he had, because he just wanted a friend first and foremost. I agreed to be his friend, mostly because he was a genuinely good guy that needed friends more than false romance, which I figured was never a good thing.

Finally, the test results came in, and my test showed up to be...

* * *

A year has passed since the time that I got my initial test results, and things have gone from bad to good in a short amount of time since I came here. For starters, I got more friends than just Hyuuga Hito, including his twin sister Hinata, who's a sweet girl as well as a practitioner in the forgotten form of the Jyuuken, where one has to have graceful movements in order to fight at maximum potential. Another of my friends is a girl named Haruno Sakura, who I helped get out of her bookwormish ways as she helped me get out of the curse of lack of knowledge, which I'm glad that she helped me with.

Then there's a rather nice Uchiha who goes by the name of Usagi, a momma's girl if there ever was one, mostly because of her desire to me more like her mother than her father. I wouldn't know what it's like to have a mother and father, but I can only imagine that it would be something amazing, if anything. Her hair, while long like girl's hair is supposed to be, is pitch black and goes down to her shoulderblades. Her onyx eyes showed the signs that she hasn't awakened the Sharingan quite yet, and probably won't for quite a while, if her history is any indication.

Then there's my instructor, Umino Iruka, who acts like a big brother to all my classmates, but especially so to me. Something tells me that it has to do with my status of being an orphan, but I wouldn't know quite yet. If he were ever asked about his preference in students, I'd guess that he'd prefer students that didn't prank their way into a mess, like I was taught not to do if I wanted to be a good candidate for the title of Hokage.

Finally, there's one person that is on my friends list that I don't know how she got on there, but her being on the list has been a major boon to me over the course of the last year. Her name...

"Hey, Uzumaki, how's life treating you?" a cheerful voice asked from behind me, making me turn around to look at the person in question.

...is Yamanaka Ino, and she's a major rumor monger who isn't afraid to get the latest scoop for the class. So far, she's had a 99.99% accuracy rating with her rumors, with only one time being wrong at all... and that was her first rumor to obtain. Apparently someone wanted to discredit the headmaster for trying to make me do something I was against, which also coincided with what my training was against, as it turns out.

As far as why she calls me by my surname all the time, well, it's something of a habit of hers that she got from a computer game that she has no idea how she got it. Last I heard about this game, though, it was because her parents confiscated it from her for being an Adult Only game about killing Vampires and other such things... plus the sex involved.

Still, I have to reply to her, especially since she knows not to make rumors about me.

"It's not going bad, per se," I tell her. "It's also not going good, so that makes it neutral, above all else."

Really, what was I supposed to say? I don't have anything against life in general, nor do I have anything against Konoha in general. This just cemented the feeling of neutrality in my mind.

"By the way, when exactly are you going to call me by my given name of Naru, Ino?" I couldn't help but ask her. I mean, given that we've been friends for a good portion of the time we've been in the Academy, she has every right to call me by my given name.

With a shocked expression on her face, Ino brought both her hands to her face. She obviously hadn't expected that question at all, otherwise she wouldn't be acting the way she is, if anything.

"Uzumaki, really, do you think I'd call you by a sacred name like that?!" She yelled in askance.

Blinking, I was about to ask her what she meant by that, when I remembered that she holds nearly everything about me sacred. For whatever reason, I think she's worshipping me behind my back, which I don't like.

Finally, as if to give me reprieve of Ino, I heard Iruka-sensei call roll and allow me to go back to the lessons on hand.

* * *

_Third Person Perspective_

A strange man walked right past the guards of Konoha, the Eternal Chuunin Izumo and Kotetsu, as if he didn't exist in their sight. This man, wearing a black cloak over his body and face, stood at roughly 6'5", and if one looked hard enough, one could see his Hazel eyes. While it seemed like there were no weapons on his person, he was in fact heavily trained to use his body as a weapon, and had a Zweihander sealed away in his back on the off-chance that he needed a weapon as an extension of his body.

He also knew how to use Illusionary arts to the maximum advantage, meaning that his ability to stay hidden until needed was at top form, regardless of what he may say about his own abilities. That may have aided his getting past the guards, but he didn't want to rely solely on such an ability, if he could avoid it.

Reaching his right hand into one of his many torso pockets, he pulled out a locket, which he proceeded to open when he had his eyes on the cover. What he saw was beautiful, even to him, someone that had been on the road for far too long.

A picture of he and his friend's sister was portrayed, the man looking like he wasn't even six years old at the time, with dark brown hair and a smirk on his face, and the female in her early teens and with beautiful red hair and a joyous smile, her eyes closed to prevent eye color from being shown.

A single tear left his right eye, as he said mostly to himself, "Kushina... I'll find you or whoever you have as family, and I'll protect you or whoever else, with my life!"

* * *

All in all it was a quiet day in Konohagakure... but little did the inhabitants of this Shinobi Village, little did the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko, Uzumaki Naru know, how this peace was all about to change as the flow of time wiped away the world as they knew it and remade it anew.

**(Well Everyone, this is DragonKnightRyu, I'm giving Xamusel a hand with this new story, apparently I'm some sort of Gender Bender expert... and looking back I can definitely see why... huh, has to be some sort of unresolved psychological issues in that... ah well nothing a good dose of alcohol won't fix!**

**Anyways Xammy here is making this story a CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE! (Coughs slightly) Basically your votes affect the outcome of the story! So choose wisely, you may end up sending all the characters to a horrible gruesome death that I will take far too much pleasure in describing...**

**… Yeah, serious issues here... Anything to add Xam?**

**Xamusel: Actually, as a matter of fact, I do have something to add. The first of the CYOA stuff is going in a poll, namely to ask about what you all feel will be Naru's ultimate class apart from Kunoichi, which, as far as I'm aware, isn't really a Pathfinder class to begin with. Therefore, DKR and I decided to make an analogy of sorts with the actual classes and make sure that there's a way to bridge the gap, so that way everyone can understand what each class is supposed to be in Naruto terms. As far as where the poll makes sense, that's why we left her test result blank, because that's up for you all to decide.**

**By the way, the poll is on my profile, not DKR's profile. I wonder when he'll update his profile to reflect any new changes?**

**DKR: (Coughs) Well... I mean to... but I work in Restoration, so whenever there's a Flood I typically get an emergency call to get out, especially during the rainy season, which it currently is, so I've been busy, only thanks to Take and Jorn that I've managed to update as often as I have... (Sighs) My job eats my life...**

**Xamusel: Hey, you're lucky you actually have a full-time job, I only have a paying job of one hour a week right now. My other job's a volunteer gig at a local camp.**

**Anyway, enough about that, back to the story. What's next to come is going to be a chance meeting with the guy that seems to know something about Kushina, but not all the details. Is anyone going to fill him in on her death by the Sealing technique, or is Fate really different for her?**

**Really, I have to determine that part, but I won't be putting it up as a poll at all.**

**DKR: In other words a...**

**…**

**... CLIFFHANGER!**

**Xamusel: Yeah, that was worth a couple chuckles when I read that, though I think that's up for debate. (ahem) Now... let's get our asses on the line for the next chapter, shall we, DKR?**

**DKR: DRUNKEN WRITING FRENZY... AWAY!)**


End file.
